Entrance into the forum is competitive, said Ching, the director of Furman\u2019s\u00a0undergraduate research program<\/a>, however, \u201cit is a student-friendly setting in which Furman\u2019s students can share their work with counterparts throughout the Southern Conference.\u201d<\/p>\n Such experiences align with\u00a0The Furman Advantage<\/a>, an educational framework that provides every student an individualized educational pathway and opportunities for high-impact learning experiences, Ching said. In addition to\u00a0Furman Engaged<\/a>, an annual campus-wide celebration of engaged learning, students are encouraged to seek off-campus opportunities to present their work.<\/p>\n \u201cA key aspect of any\u00a0high-impact experience<\/a>\u00a0is a public presentation of one\u2019s research findings or creative production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Furman\u2019s reputation for fostering research is reflected by significant funding in recent years from the National Science Foundation<\/a>. The school was ranked 31st in the nation for undergraduate research and creative projects by U.S. News and World Report<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n Catherine Davis \u201924<\/p><\/div>\n Davis, an\u00a0English<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0philosophy<\/a>\u00a0double major, discussed her research on \u201cMonstrosity and Manners in the Gothic Novel\u201d in an oral presentation. The senior\u00a0Bell Tower Scholarship<\/a>\u00a0recipient looked at 19th-century medical texts, etiquette guides and fiction like \u201cThe Island of Dr. Moreau\u201d and \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d to trace how science was taught and discussed contemporarily.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciated being able to share my research with other students, both to inform them of how science interacts with our everyday lives as well as how we can see societal biases come into play within scientific discourses,\u201d said Davis, who plans to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy and become a college professor. \u201cAs someone who wants to go into academics, (this) was a good\u00a0chance for me to practice presenting a paper, and it taught me everything involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Chadwick Frost \u201924<\/p><\/div>\n Frost, a\u00a0neuroscience<\/a>\u00a0major, brought his poster \u201cDreaming and Remote Memory\u201d to the forum. Working with\u00a0Erin Wamsley<\/a>, an associate professor of psychology, in Furman\u2019s\u00a0Sleep Lab<\/a>, Frost investigated what subjects dreamed about as they napped right after being asked to recall a time in their lives when they were extremely angry or upset.<\/p>\n Frost, who is also a Bell Tower Scholarship recipient, is still collecting the data on the research he began this past summer.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I took a look at the data, it seems that people who have dreams related to their negative experience actually rate the emotion of the dream as positive,\u201d said Frost, who plans to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and conduct research in psychopathology or brain imaging. \u201cIt\u2019s actually a theory in dream research that dreams sort of strip the emotion from negative experiences that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Abby Stapleton \u201924<\/p><\/div>\n Stapleton, a\u00a0chemistry<\/a>\u00a0major with a minor in\u00a0data analytics<\/a>, gave an oral presentation on the biochemistry research she conducted with\u00a0Meghan Breen<\/a>, an assistant professor of chemistry, investigating why a particular pathogenic yeast species has proven to be so resistant to the frontline treatment fluconazole.<\/p>\n The yeast in question \u201cis especially lethal in bloodstream infections, and we\u2019re concerned that it\u2019s highly prevalent within at-risk populations, with a mortality rate of up to 50%,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Stapleton, a\u00a0Townes Scholar<\/a>, has been working on her research since May 2022. She is in the process of applying to M.D.\/Ph.D. programs, with the hopes of advancing both research and direct patient care as a physician-scientist.<\/p>\n Kaisa Menkhaus \u201924<\/p><\/div>\n Menkhaus, an\u00a0Asian studies<\/a>\u00a0major minoring in\u00a0linguistics<\/a>, shared her poster \u201cLanguage Learning Experiences: Investigating Emotional Engagement and Motivation\u201d at the forum.<\/p>\n \u201cThe experience helped boost my confidence with public speaking,\u201d said the aspiring linguistics graduate student. \u201cI also developed new ideas and interests from interacting with some of the other participants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For four Furman students, the interdisciplinary SoCon Undergraduate Research Forum was a high-impact experience that will fuel their graduate study pursuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":28629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,53,101,31,79,36,61,55],"tags":[2356,208],"class_list":["post-28621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-studies","category-chemistry","category-data-analytics","category-english","category-neuroscience","category-philosophy","category-the-furman-advantage","category-undergraduate-research","tag-high-impact-experience","tag-undergraduate-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2023\/10\/catherine-davis-crop.jpg\")
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